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By AFP
February 19, 2017

DHAKA - Hundreds of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmar have returned home, community leaders said Sunday (Feb 19), adding that most had gone back temporarily to fetch relatives.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled across the border from Myanmar's western state of Rakhine since October to escape a bloody crackdown by troops and police.

Dudu Mia, a refugee camp leader in the coastal town of Teknaf, said nearly 1,000 Rohingya - mostly young men - had returned to their home villages to collect elderly family members left behind earlier.

"Most of those men are hoping to bring their relatives back to Bangladesh. It's been four months and they have barely even talked to their parents back home," Mia told AFP.

Myanmar's army has halted its operations in the north of Rakhine, a senior official said last week, ending the four-month crackdown which the UN has warned may amount to crimes against humanity.

Hundreds from the Rohingya Muslim minority are thought to have died and almost 70,000 have fled to Bangladesh since the military launched a campaign to find militants who attacked police border posts.

Bangladeshi authorities estimate 400,000 Rohingya refugees are now living in Bangladesh, including the 70,000 most recent arrivals.

Escapees have given harrowing accounts of how security forces raped, killed and tortured Rohingya and burnt their houses to the ground.

Another Rohingya leader said some of the refugees had left Bangladesh permanently because their home villages had not been damaged by the Myanmar army and they had properties to protect.

"They left (their homes) because they were panicked. They didn't want to stay here as beggars, rather they would live in their own houses and work at land back home," he said on condition of anonymity.

The Border Guard Bangladesh confirmed that some Rohingya refugees had gone back to Myanmar.

"Scores of Rohingya people have reportedly returned home in last few days," said local commander Abujar al-Jahid.

"But we're remaining on high alert about any illegal infiltration." A satellite image published last year by Human Rights Watch showed how Myanmar troops burned down Rohingya villages, displacing thousands.

Most of the Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh are now living in squalid conditions in refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district, which borders Rakhine and is also home to the country's biggest tourist resort.

Bangladesh has already approved a controversial plan for their relocation to an island and instructed officials to identify undocumented Myanmar nationals as part of the campaign.



By Sumon Mahbub
February 19, 2017


Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has called for support of the international community to help relocate Myanmar Rohingya refugees to a remote island until repatriation.

Merkel herself wanted to know about the matter from Hasina during the bilateral meeting Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich on Saturday, the PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told the media.

Hasina told her that Bangladesh gave shelter on humanitarian grounds to the Myanmar nationals who entered the country illegally.

"They were in bad condition after arriving in Bangladesh," Karim quoted Hasina as saying in the meeting.

She told Merkel that the huge number of Rohingya Muslims, almost half a million, including the newly arrived 69,000, have impacted the environment of the tourist hub of Cox's Bazar where they are staying in two registered refugee camps and several makeshift settlements.

Hasina said a place had been fixed for them and they will be kept at the place 'temporarily'. They will be given all sorts of facilities until repatriation to their own country, she added.

"She has sought the support of the international community for this," Karim said.

The remote Thengar Char island in the Bay of Bengal, where Bangladesh authorities plan to shift the Rohingya refugees, is not yet considered fit for human habitation.

It takes two hours to reach Thengar Char by boat from the nearest human habitation in the coastal district of Noakhali.

The Bangladesh Forest Department, however, says it can be readied for habitation within a short time with proper logistical support.

Karim said the hour-long bilateral meeting was 'very friendly'.

Merkel praised Hasina for Bangladesh's socio-economic progress, according to the PM's press secretary.

She also expressed hope that the trade ties between the two countries will strengthen further in the future.

Hasina spoke about Bangladesh's achievement in the field of economy and development.

The two leaders also discussed gender issue and women empowerment, Karim said.

"Our honourable prime minister told the German chancellor about the government's efforts and success in women empowerment," he said.

They also discussed the elimination of poverty and progress in education.

Hasina called for German investment in Bangladesh, noting the plan to set up 100 special economic zones and a high-tech park. She said the German firms could take advantage of those initiatives.

Speaking about her government's 'zero tolerance' policy towards terrorism, Hasina said, "The two countries will work together in this field."

She pointed out that the government took some steps for the wellbeing of workers, including allowing them to form trade unions at the Economic Processing Zones.

Karim said the German chancellor accepted Hasina's invitation to visit Bangladesh.

She also expressed gratitude recalling German support in Bangladesh's struggle for independence.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmud Ali, PM's Principal Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque were also present at the meeting.

After the meeting, Bangladesh and Germany signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on upgrading current machine readable passport system of Bangladesh and a Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) on political exchange on counter terrorism.

Home Secretary Kamal Uddin Ahmed and German state-run Vridos GmBH CEO Hans Wolfgang Kunz signed the e-passport MoU.

The JDI was signed by Foreign Ministry Director General (Europe) Mohammad Khorshed Alam Khastagir and Ambassador Patricia Flor, Director-General for International Order, United Nations and Arms Control, German Federal Foreign Office.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, will visit various locations in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district where people fleeing Myanmar are residing temporarily in makeshift shelters.

February 18, 2017

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, will visit various locations in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district where people fleeing Myanmar are residing temporarily in makeshift shelters.

Lee, will visit Bangladesh from February 20 to 23.

“The announcement that the military security operations in the north of Rakhine has ceased is welcomed. However, we cannot forget the numerous allegations of grave human rights violations recorded by the team deployed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Cox’s Bazar last month,” Lee said recalling the February 3 OHCHR’s flash report based on the testimonies of over 200 individuals.

The human rights expert, who plans to visit Cox’s Bazar and related areas, will focus on the situation of the specific population from Myanmar who had crossed into Bangladesh since October 9 last year and the events which have led to their crossing over into the country, according to a UN press release issued today in Geneva.

“Having access to these affected communities would help give me a better understanding of their human rights situation in Myanmar,” she said.

Following her three-day visit to Bangladesh, the human rights expert will issue an end of mission statement and share her findings when she presents a new report to the UN Human Rights Council on 13 March 2017. The report will be posted online.

Arafat harbours a dream to earn an income enough for his survival. - Photo Astro AWANI/HILAL AZMI

By Hilal Azmi
February 18, 2017
 
COX'S BAZAAR: Upon entering a makeshift camp in Balukhali, Bangladesh, one is reminded of an animal farm.

Rows and rows of barns and gunny sacks dot the area which now houses thousands of Rohingya refugees, who have been internally displaced since the crisis began in 2011. 

The place turned noisy as Malaysian volunteers arrive on a bus, accompanied by local military.

Our arrival attracted the refugees, some were smiling while others scrambled on their feet to be the first to know what was happening.

Their appearances untidy, sarong up above their knees, unruly hair and red-toothed as a sign of constant betel nut chewing.

When you look at them closely, their eyes tell a story. A story of misery and sadness.

“Haipp!!!! Haippp!!!” … An army officer yelled trying to keep the refugees away from the Food Flotilla for Myanmar entourage.

The entourage is made up of 25 volunteers comprising volunteers and media personnel, who had to walk for three kilometres to reach the newly-built refugee camp.

Upon arriving at the location, we saw several barns lining the sparse area until the foot of a hill which had been flattened.

My eyes were fixed on a boy, who was looking at the ‘commotion’ from afar.



Dressed in an orange T-shirt and a brown sarong stained with mud, the boy scrambled on their feet to get the goodies distributed by the Malaysian volunteers.

“Tomar naam kee? (What is your name?),” asked Miejanurrahman, a volunteer from the International of Migration.

“Muhammad Arafat Hussein!” the boy replied briefly.

The 11-year-old boy looked fearful, as he stood beside the row of ‘houses’ with dark plastics and sticks that function as cooling effect.

We tried to converse about his experience in obtaining an asylum in Bangladesh.

“I came with my parents and four of my siblings. Previously, we were placed at a village near Maung Daw, Myanmar.

“My brother had been apprehended by the Myanmar military, I haven’t seen him until today,” said Arafat, as he sucked on the sweets that he got from the Malaysian volunteers.

According to UNHCR report, an approximate 20,000 Rohingya refugees have yet to receive formal education since 2010.

Arafat is one of children, his child instinct is distorted due to his sufferings.

When asked about his ambition and hope, Arafat seemed clueless, he did not understand these words although they were conveyed to him in native language.

His eyes blinked rapidly, he looked as though he was looking for the best answer. Almost a minute late, Arafat started talking.

“I want to be in a position with sufficient salary for survival,” said Arafat.

The Rohingya refugee camp located in Balukhali, Ukhiya was built 45 days ago. To date, it houses some 5,000 refugees whose hopes to receive constant aides for survival.
The OIC needs to lead the initiative to protect the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, writes Ahsan
(Photo: Fazry Ismail/EPA)

By Abdullah al-Ahsan
February 18, 2017

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is not doing enough to save the Rohingya community in Myanmar.

The latest United Nations report on the Rohingya minority shocked the world yet again with descriptions of the kind of atrocities that the Myanmar security forces are perpetrating.

From children cut to death, to women raped and whole villages burned, these brutal acts have been justifiably characterised as most likely amounting to crimes against humanity.

Despite having ample evidence of the extent of ethnic cleansing pursued by the Myanmar authorities, the world is yet to take serious action against the government in Naypyidaw. 

Among the many organisations that should be striving to protect the Rohingya, there is one that should clearly lead this initiative: the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Of all the international entities, the OIC is best positioned to undertake the cause of the Rohingya community. 

Not only does it officially represent Muslim-majority nations, but it also has welcomed powerful nations with Muslim minorities such as the United States, China, and Russia to have their own representatives in the organisation. 

It has the leverage to lead international action to protect the Rohingya and in the past has stood up for persecuted Muslims in Palestine and Kashmir among other places.

An old issue with a new twist

The Rohingya problem is several decades old. A 1982 Myanmar law stripped the Rohingya of access to full citizenship. Since then members of the Rohingya community have been driven out of Myanmar. Many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and from there to other countries.

It is very difficult to determine how many Rohingya have migrated but currently there are about 400,000 of them in Saudi Arabia and about 200,000 in Pakistan and most are supposed to have fled via Bangladesh.

The Myanmar government has sought to erase decades of violence and oppression against the Rohingya by citing security concerns to justify its brutal campaign. 

More recently concerns about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group spreading its influence in Southeast Asia have presented the government with a welcome distraction from the atrocities it is committing. 

After the OIC criticised Myanmar at its January 19 extraordinary meeting on the Rohingya issue, its foreign ministry responded by saying: "It is disturbing to note that the OIC meeting held in Kuala Lumpur on January 19, 2017, failed to acknowledge that the situation was a direct result of the well-planned and coordinated attacks on police outposts in the northern Rakhine State on October 9, 2016, by extremist elements both funded and inspired from abroad." 

The fear of the rise of extremism is genuine and should be examined candidly. Western media have extensively reported on suspicions that ISIL might be recruiting among the Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Indian media has even claimed that "Rohingya militants, who are trained in Pakistan, have become operational in Bangladesh's hill track area of Cox's Bazar's Teknaf and remote areas of Bandarban." 

But how much of this speculation is based in reality, and how much of it is propaganda? Whether true or not, it certainly provides a convenient excuse for the Myanmar government. 

If one digs a bit deeper beyond the "international terrorism" rhetoric, it is clear that suffering of the Rohingya has provoked expected antagonism. 

According to Austin Bodetti, writing in the The Diplomat magazine, "the Rohingya rebels operate in secret and without support from civil society, and their Islamic credentials, though present, are by far secondary to their sociopolitical grievances. They want human rights for all Rohingya, not a caliphate or an emirate." 

But as the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak warned in his speech at the OIC meeting, the Rohingya could be "infiltrated" by ISIL if their plight is not resolved and this could threaten the whole region.

The example of Turkey

January 19 was not the first time that the OIC has urged Myanmar authorities to let it and other international delegations visit the violence-torn areas.

Unfortunately each time this has happened, the Myanmar authorities have come forward with more force and more brutal persecution.

The OIC's condemnation of the violence against the Rohingya has again been reaffirmed in the recent report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on February 3, 2017.

The OIC's attempt to create pressure through other UN agencies such as the Human Rights Commission has also failed and the situation on the ground has continued to deteriorate. 

In this context one must remember that international organisations such as the OIC have weak mechanisms for implementation of their resolutions.

Strong nation states most of the time ignore demands of international organisations if they consider them against their interests. Israel has always ignored UN resolutions and Myanmar seems to have employed the same tactics. 

Yet, keeping in view the shortcomings of international organisations, one must look for ways to assist the Rohingya people. This necessitates the OIC to conduct some soul-searching: has it stood for universal justice and human dignity that it claims to stand for? 

In this context one may recall two OIC member states, Malaysia and Turkey, coming forward with material, political, humanitarian and, more importantly, emotional assistance.

Several years ago Turkey's First Lady Emine Erdogan accompanied the Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on a visit to Myanmar to express solidarity with the victims. Many Rohingya refugees in Malaysia affectionately remember this event.

Although Turkey has not been able to make any dent in Myanmar's stance on Rohingya issue, it has been able to create a caring image of itself that Islamic teachings demand.

Malaysia, too, on top of calling for international action to address the Rohingya crisis, has developed a mechanism to assist Rohingya refugees with the involvement of UNHCR.

In recognition of these efforts, the OIC has appointed former Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, as the OIC envoy on the Rohingya issue.

In contrast, Bangladesh has not only denied anchoring to the devastated boat people who tried to escape violence-torn Myanmar, according to Human Right Watch, it has also denied refugees access to necessary humanitarian aid, endangering the lives of thousands of civilians and compelling many to seek refuge in nearby countries. 

Bangladesh's prime minister has accused the Rohingya of being terrorists. Shouldn't the OIC hold the government of Bangladesh responsible for denying the persecuted Rohingya entry into the country?

Unfortunately, the OIC has not taken the stance of the current government of Bangladesh seriously. The OIC does not seem to have appreciated the standpoint of Turkey either.

Had the OIC adopted a resolution condemning Bangladesh's posture and appreciating Turkey's position, it would have sent a signal to Myanmar's government that the Rohingya issue is an issue of universal human rights and human dignity, which supersedes national interests.

The OIC was created to promote these values. Based on these universally recognised values, the OIC can also create moral pressure on the US, Russia and China. 

Why should the government in Myanmar and world powers take the OIC seriously when the OIC is not able to practise what it claims to stand for?

Abdullah al-Ahsan is professor of comparative civilizations at the Department of History and Civilization in International Islamic University Malaysia. He is the author of The Organization of the Islamic Conference: Introduction to an Islamic Political Institution.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop during Question Time on Thursday. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

By Lindsay Murdoch
February 18, 2017

Bangkok: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has told Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi Australia is "deeply concerned" about atrocities on Rohingya Muslims documented in a United Nations report. 

"I have expressed my concerns about the situation in Rakhine State to Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi," Ms Bishop said, referring to the Noble laureate by her official title.

Ms Bishop made the comments after unprecedented condemnation of Myanmar's government, including from Pope Francis, and the passing of a motion in the Australian Senate on Thursday urging the Turnbull government to consider calling for a UN commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in the Buddhist-majority country.

The motion, initiated by Greens foreign affairs spokesman Scott Ludlam and passed without division, followed a series of reports by Fairfax Media on the atrocities.

The reports cited evidence gathered from 70,000 Rohingya leaving in Bangladesh camps after fleeing Rakhine, including the slitting of a baby's throat while he cried out for his mother's milk as she was being gang raped.

Soldiers were also seen stomping on the stomach of a pregnant woman while she was in labour.

Senator Ludlam said he welcomed the Australian Parliament putting aside partisan divides to speak out about the devastation of the more than one million Rohingya who were born in Rakhine and have lived there for generations but who are denied basic rights such as citizenship and freedom of movement.

"For years and years we have seen institutionalised marginalisation and discrimination. Now we are witnesses to horrifying atrocities like gang rape, brutal beatings, disappearances and killings," he said.

Ms Bishop said she had told Ms Suu Kyi's government that Australia expects an already established commission to investigate the atrocities cited in the UN report in a "thorough, credible and impartial manner".

The government commission established in December and led by a retired general has been widely seen as a whitewash.

The government has also set up a separate five-person investigation into the behaviour of security forces, which is also seen as highly unlikely to recommend that any senior military officers be held accountable.

Ms Bishop said the Australian government remains committed to working with Myanmar and others to address "complex humanitarian and development challenges".

Australia has sent more than more than $40 million in aid to Rakhine or Rohingya refugees since 2012.

For months Myanmar's government denied independent reports of mass murders, rapes, forced disappearances and the torching of houses with families locked inside. The UN concluded in a report released on February 3 the incidents "very likely " amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

The government insisted the deployment of hundred of security forces into towns and villages near the Bangladesh border was part of a four-month "clearance operation" after attacks on police posts in October.

UN officials have said more than 1000 Rohingyas had been killed.

Ms Suu Kyi, who led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory at elections in late 2015, appears to have little sway with generals who control key security ministries.

She has been widely criticised for failing to stand up for the Rohingya who ultra-Buddhist nationalists regard as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Yanghee Lee, the UN's special envoy for Myanmar, has called for a UN inquiry into the military's abuses of Rohingya, saying she will push for member states to approve it at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 13.

Matt Smith, chief executive of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has also documented abuses in Rakhine, said a commission of inquiry would have been unthinkable six months ago "but serious momentum is growing daily".

Ms Bishop's response came after a coalition of Australian organisations called on the Turnbull government to condemn the atrocities, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Council for International Development.

The Australian Refugee Council had also called on Australia to increase its humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya and to resettle more of them in Australia.

Only 37 Rohingya refugees have been allowed to resettle in Australia since 2013.

Pic: NST Online

February 17, 2017

PUTRAJAYA: The Qatar Development Fund, which will be used to help Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, will be coordinated by the National Security Council, together with other relevant ministries, agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the fund will be used for the welfare of 56,135 Rohingya refugees holding the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card in the country.

“The fund is to implement three main aspects for the Rohingya, namely, training, education and health, which will create a positive effect in the long run.

“In terms of skills, the Home Ministry has already launched a pilot project to allow 300 Rohingya holding the UNHCR cards to work in Malaysia, starting March 1. They will be working in the plantation and manufacturing sectors for three years, while waiting to return to their country of origin or placed in a third country.

“(The teaching of) semi-skilled programmes; education of Rohingya children; and the (offering of) health insurance schemes will be carried out by the Human Resources Ministry, the Education Ministry and the Health Ministry,” he said in a statement after chairing the High Level Committee Meeting on Rohingya Management in Malaysia today.

Malaysia’s efforts in championing the rights and welfare of Rohingya refugees received support from the Qatar government during Zahid’s official visit to the country from Feb 4 to 7.

During the visit, Qatar announced that it will provide financial aid for programmes to help Rohingya refugees in Malaysia through the Qatar Development Fund.

UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Re: Joint NGO Letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres about the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State

Your Excellency,

The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Myanmar, have been systematically disenfranchised and increasingly marginalized, including through denial of citizenship and restriction of movement. Over the years successive UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Myanmar have reported serious continuing human rights violations against this community. Following a 12-day visit to Myanmar in January, Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee noted allegations of ongoing human rights abuses in Rakhine State. She also raised concerns regarding widespread fear amongst civilians of potential reprisals as punishment for speaking out. In her upcoming report to the 34th session of the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur Lee will call for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into the Rohingya situation. As you know, on 3 February the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report based on interviews with Rohingya who had fled from Myanmar, which detailed "widespread and systematic" attacks against the Rohingya and reiterated "the very likely commission of crimes against humanity" – as had already been concluded by the High Commissioner in June 2016.1 The High Commissioner, likewise, has called for a Commission of Inquiry.

Following a series of attacks on border guard posts on 9 October 2016 and subsequent joint army-police counterinsurgency operation, there have been consistent reports of extrajudicial executions, rape and other crimes of sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, mass arrests, and the widespread destruction of Rohingya buildings and mosques. During your tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, you witnessed first-hand the discriminatory treatment of the Rohingya, including the proposal by then-President Thein Sein to settle all Rohingya in displacement camps or send them to third countries. The situation has only deteriorated since.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 69,000 people have fled from Rakhine State for Bangladesh since October, while 24,000 people remain internally displaced in Myanmar. Despite the announcement on 16 February of the termination of the four-month counterinsurgency operation, the government continued to deny allegations of human
rights abuses in Rakhine State.

We note that the Myanmar authorities have established several national commissions to investigate allegations of human rights violations, however none of these commissions are independent or credible. Two investigations are being conducted by the police and military respectively, raising concerns about their ability to investigate allegations of abuses within their ranks. The third Commission, established in December, claims to have found insufficient evidence of human rights violations, despite mounting reports to the contrary. Another commission - the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, does not have a human rights mandate and will not be conducting investigations into the allegations of abuses. On 6 February the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, stated that the failure to address these violations puts populations at "the risk
of very serious international crimes."

We welcome your commitment to human rights, peace and conflict prevention, as well as your stated readiness to advance these causes through your good offices and personal engagement as UN SecretaryGeneral. Given the intensive promotion of anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar and the lack of political will to restore rights to the Rohingya, the situation requires more than a series of flawed national investigation commissions to push policymakers to change course.

We urge you to proactively engage with the Government of Myanmar and other national actors, including through a possible visit to the country, and convey your concern about the gravity of the situation in Rakhine State. Your office should engage directly with the Myanmar leadership, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and
strongly encourage them to allow an international independent investigation into allegations of human rights abuses in northern Rakhine State and to effectively address the institutionalized discrimination of the Rohingya. We believe that your leadership on this matter would send a powerful message to the government and the military and could prevent further violations. We respectfully ask you to urge the government of Myanmar to uphold its responsibility to protect all populations, regardless of religion, ethnicity or other status, and to specifically ask the government to take the following key steps:

- Allow immediate and unhindered access for national and international humanitarian workers,
independent media and human rights observers to Rakhine State;
- Support the establishment of an independent international investigation into the situation in
Rakhine State;
- Hold all perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable, including army and police officers;
- Repeal or amend all laws and regulations which discriminate against Rohingya and other
minorities in Myanmar, including but not limited to the four "Protection of Race and Religion"
laws and the 1982 Citizenship Law;
- Remove all arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on the Rohingya community and other
Muslims in Rakhine State, in particular on their freedom of movement and access to health
services, education and equal livelihood opportunities; and
- Guarantee the safe, voluntary and dignified return of displaced communities to their homes.

The impact of the current crisis is felt beyond the borders of Myanmar, and there are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya asylum seekers throughout the region. Many neighboring states refuse to recognize them as refugees or allow them access to humanitarian assistance, food and health services, much less their rights to work and to receive an education.

The United Nations must send a clear and powerful signal regarding pluralism and the rule of law. Failure to act now may result in further human rights violations, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity.

Sincerely,

Amnesty International
Burma Task Force
FIDH - International Federation for Human Rights
Fortify Rights
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Physicians for Human Rights
Refugees International
U.S. Campaign for Burma

Original here.

Myanmar lawyer Ko Ni delivers a public address on amending the country's 2008 constitution in Yangon, Nov. 10, 2013. (Photo: AFP)


February 16, 2017

A retired military officer allegedly masterminded the killing last month of a prominent Muslim rights attorney and ruling-party advisor in what the Myanmar government has called a politically motivated “terrorist act,” the President’s Office said Wednesday.

A statement issued by the office of President Htin Kyaw said Aung Win Khaing, a former army lieutenant colonel who retired voluntarily from the military in 2014, orchestrated the assassination of Ko Ni on Jan. 29.

Police and the military are on the lookout for Aung Win Khaing, who is on the run, and other possible conspirators, the statement said.

Aung Win Khaing is the brother of Aung Win Zaw, who was arrested on Jan. 30 in Kayin state in connection with the murder.

Aung Win Zaw told police that Aung Win Khaing promised to pay him 100 million kyats (about U.S. $73,000) to have Ko Ni assassinated and gave him 10 million kyats (U.S. $7,400) upfront.

Aung Win Zaw allegedly hired a third man named Kyi Lin to assassinate Ko Ni in exchange for a car.

Kyi Lin shot 63-year-old Ko Ni at close range in the back of the head outside Yangon’s international airport after the attorney had returned with a delegation of government and civic leaders from a trip to Indonesia where they participated in a workshop on interfaith tolerance and reconciliation.

He also shot and killed taxi driver Ne Win, who had given chase after the attorney was gunned down.

On the day of the murder, Aung Win Khaing called his brother twice and told him to have Ko Ni killed, the government’s statement said.

The gun used by Kyi Lin to shoot Ko Ni was purchased in October 2016 from a man named Myint Swe in the Umpiem Mai refugee camp in Thailand, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the Myanmar border, according to what Aung Win Zaw told police.

The government previously said that the assassination was a politically motivated act meant to “destabilize the state.”

The murder occurred at a time when religious tension between Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and Muslim minority is running high.

A crackdown in Rakhine state by Myanmar security forces on Rohingya Muslims since October has left more than 1,000 dead and forced about 69,000 villagers to flee to safety in neighboring Bangladesh, according to United Nations estimates.

Some of the Rohingya who fled have accused Myanmar security forces of extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and arson during the lockdown.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp. (AFP)


By Saad Hammadi
February 16, 2017

Burmese Rohingya Organisation said Myanmar homecoming and not Bangladesh's refugees' relocation plan would solve the problem

The Muslim Rohingya minority has urged Bangladesh to coerce neighbouring Myanmar to allow them to return to their ancestral land through international pressure.

Scores of thousands of Rohingyas are fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh following a bloody army crackdown, especially in the riven western state of Rakhine -- an action that has drawn widespread rebuke from the international community.

Around 70,000 Rohingya Muslims have entered Bangladesh since "clearing operations" began four months back, sparking a grievous refugee crisis in the Southasian nation.

Since then, Bangladesh has resurrected plans to relocate the thousands of refugess to a remote island called Thengar Char in the Bay of Bengal. But Dhaka's plan to shift them there has faced stiff controversy as critics say the island is inhabitable and prone to flooding.


President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation, Tun Khin, told WION Dhaka's plan to relocate the Rohingya Muslims would "not solve the problem".

Instead, he felt that the problem would not be alleviated "until the Burmese government do not stop these human rights abuses and restore their right to their native land".

Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for centuries but have faced persecution from the Burmese authorities.

There are 1.1 million Rohingya residing in Myanmar, many of whom who have stayed in the country for generations but they are still viewed by many Burmese as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Malaysian aid ship reaches Bangladesh

A Malaysian ship carrying aid for thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled a bloody army crackdown in Myanmar docked in Bangladesh Tuesday, days after it met with protests in Yangon.

Senior Bangladeshi officials and Malaysian diplomats gathered at Chittagong port as Nautical Aliya


President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation, Tun Khin, told WION Dhaka's plan to relocate the Rohingya Muslims would "not solve the problem".

Instead, he felt that the problem would not be alleviated "until the Burmese government do not stop these human rights abuses and restore their right to their native land".

Rohingya Muslims have lived in Myanmar for centuries but have faced persecution from the Burmese authorities.

There are 1.1 million Rohingya residing in Myanmar, many of whom who have stayed in the country for generations but they are still viewed by many Burmese as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. 

Malaysian aid ship reaches Bangladesh

A Malaysian ship carrying aid for thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled a bloody army crackdown in Myanmar docked in Bangladesh Tuesday, days after it met with protests in Yangon.

Senior Bangladeshi officials and Malaysian diplomats gathered at Chittagong port as Nautical Aliya docked in the southern city, from where its aid cargo will be transported to Rohingya camps.

The shipment was received by local officials of the Red Crescent and International Organisation of Migration at the port’s container terminal in a brief handover ceremony.

Trucks will carry the 1,472 tonnes of food, clothing and medical items to Cox's Bazar, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Chittagong for distribution to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees.

(WION with inputs from AFP)

A screen grab from a YouTube video showing a policeman kicking a Rohingya minority villager in Kotankauk village during a police area clearance operation on Nov 5, 2016.PHOTO: AFP


February 16, 2017

YANGON -- Myanmar's military has ended a clearance operation in the country's troubled Rakhine state, government officials said, ending a four-month sweep that the United Nations said may amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.

The security operation had been under way since nine policemen were killed in attacks on security posts near the Bangladesh border on Oct 9. Almost 69,000 Rohingyas have since fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh, according to UN estimates.

The violence has renewed international criticism that Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has done too little to help members of the Muslim minority.

The government led by Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has denied almost all allegations of human rights abuses in Rakhine, including mass killings and gang rapes of Rohingya Muslims, and said the operation was a lawful counterinsurgency campaign.

"The situation in northern Rakhine has now stabilised. The clearance operations undertaken by the military have ceased, the curfew has been eased and there remains only a police presence to maintain the peace," newly-appointed national security adviser Thaung Tun was quoted as saying in a statement released by State Counsellor's Office late on Wednesday.

"There can be no excuse for excessive force, for abuses of fundamental human rights and basic criminality. We have shown that we are ready to act where there is clear evidence of abuses," he told a group of diplomats and UN representatives in a meeting, according to the statement.

Two senior officials from Myanmar's President Office and the Ministry of Information confirmed that the army operation in northern Rakhine had ended but said the military force remained in the region to maintain "peace and security".

Myanmar military did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

The military and police have separately set up a team to investigate alleged crimes after Suu Kyi promised to probe UN allegations of atrocities against the Muslim minority.

More than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims may have been killed in the crackdown, two senior UN officials dealing with refugees fleeing the violence told Reuters last week.

A Myanmar presidential spokesman has said the latest reports from military commanders were that fewer than 100 people had been killed in the counterinsurgency operation.

Rohingya Muslims have faced discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for generations. They are regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, entitled only to limited rights and some 1.1 million of them live in apartheid-like conditions in northwestern Myanmar.

Jared Ferrie/IRIN


By Jared Ferrie
February 16, 2017

YANGON -- The UN should launch an inquiry into military abuses of Myanmar’s minority Rohingya Muslims, because the government is incapable of carrying out a credible investigation, the UN’s rights envoy will tell the Human Rights Council next month.

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told IRIN that she will urge member states to sponsor a resolution for a commission of inquiry when she presents her report to the Council in Geneva on 13 March.

“I never said in the past to a reporter what I plan to put in my report,” she said in a phone interview. “This time I am making this point: I will certainly be pushing for an inquiry, definitely, on the Rohingya situation.”

Rights groups have, over the past few years, been urging the UN to investigate reports of abuses against the Rohingya, a mostly stateless minority forced to live under an apartheid system. But the calls have become more urgent since reports of mass rapes, killings, and other atrocities began to emerge in early October, when the military launched counterinsurgency operations.

There is now unprecedented pressure for a UN-backed inquiry, which could find evidence that Myanmar’s military has committed crimes against humanity.

“A commission of inquiry would have been unthinkable six months ago, but serious momentum is growing daily,” said Matt Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights, which has documented abuses of Rohingya. “The special rapporteur plays an essential role in helping UN member states understand what to do. They'll strongly consider her recommendations.”

Mass exodus

More than 69,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since October, bringing with them horrific accounts of soldiers attacking their communities in Maungdaw, a township on the border that the military has kept under strict lockdown. Rohingya who made it to Bangladesh have recounted their experiences to groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which also analysed satellite images indicating that the military systematically burned villages.

A “flash report” issued last week by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights added considerable weight to the push for an inquiry. Myanmar refused to allow UN investigators into Maungdaw, but 204 survivors in Bangladesh recounted harrowing experiences that allegedly included witnessing children being “slaughtered with knives”.

Myanmar’s civilian government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has for months responded to such allegations with outright denials. But her administration appears to have softened its stance – if only slightly – in the wake of the OHCHR findings. 

Spokespersons for the president’s office and the foreign ministry did not answer phone calls, but the government today printed a statement on the front page of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper in response to the OHCHR report.

“The government of Myanmar considers the allegations contained in the report very serious in nature and is also deeply concerned about the report,” said the statement, which added that a government commission formed in December would investigate.

Few people outside the government have faith in that commission, which is headed by Myint Swe, a former lieutenant general who was only recently removed from the US sanctions list.

“It’s gone beyond the point of depending on the government to do a credible investigation,” said Lee, who met with the commission during her visit to Myanmar last month. “It didn’t even have a methodology of approaching this investigation,” she told IRIN.

A UN commission would include forensic specialists who would be tasked with determining whether crimes took place or not. 

Doubts

Two questions loom large: Will one of the 47 member states in the Human Rights Council put forward a resolution to form a commission of inquiry? And, if so, will Myanmar cooperate?

Myanmar’s military is unlikely to allow access to investigators who would probably find evidence that its soldiers committed crimes against humanity, according to a European diplomat who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. 

Aung San Suu Kyi’s government may be cooperative, but the military has ignored instructions over the past couple months from her administration to allow independent investigators, said the diplomat.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration has no control over the military and her influence on military matters is thought to be little if any.

The generals dissolved their junta in 2010, after almost half a century of unbroken military rule, and ushered in sweeping reforms that allowed Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy to participate in elections after being violently repressed for decades. While the NLD won a majority in parliament, the military occupies key ministries in line with the constitution it wrote in 2008, which also gives it authority to carry out operations without civilian oversight.

However, the military would be under intense pressure to cooperate with a UN-backed commission of inquiry. Refusal by the government and military to cooperate with the UN would strip away much of the credibility Myanmar has gained internationally over the past few years through the reform process initiated by the generals themselves.

“It would put Myanmar back in time, to pariah state status,” said Lee.

That question of how Myanmar reacts will be irrelevant if no Human Rights Council member sponsors a resolution. Although pressure is growing, it is by no means a given.

During the Barack Obama presidency, the US was supportive of the reform process, while also frequently speaking out against rights violations. But US policy under President Donald Trump remains to be seen.

A spokesman for the US embassy declined to comment on the potential for a UN-backed inquiry, and instead focused on Myanmar’s own promises to investigate the OHCHR findings.

“We hope the Myanmar government will take the report’s findings seriously and redouble efforts both to protect the civilian population and to investigate these allegations in a thorough and credible manner,” said the spokesman.

IRIN submitted queries to four other embassies, as well as Bangladesh’s foreign ministry, none of which responded.

Lee and other sources pointed to the European Union as one of the most likely candidates to sponsor a resolution. The EU ambassador, Roland Kobia, suggested it was a possibility – but couched his statement in diplomatic language.

“The EU will continue to table a Myanmar-specific country resolution in the UN HRC as we have done in years past,” said Kobia. “I would expect that the topic of the investigation… will come up during the negotiations on the resolution text.”


(TOP PHOTO: The front page of Myanmar's state-run newspaper on 9 February 2017 carried two articles about government attempts to investigate alleged military abuses of Rohingya. CREDIT: Jared Ferrie/IRIN)

Pic: Post Guam


February 16, 2017

In a remote village in Arakan, 19-year-old Senu Ara was eight months pregnant when she was raped by a Myanmar militant.

She was counting the days; waiting for the birth of her second child, when the vile military man broke into her home and caused a ruckus.

But unfortunately, things escalated for the worst when he shot her husband dead and proceeded to rape her.

“The man covered his face and raped me while I was eight months pregnant,” Senu recounted her ordeal to Utusan Malaysia with the help of a translator.

“I no longer have anyone because my husband was killed. I thought I could escape the soldiers by fleeing the village, but regardless where we are, they will continue to oppress us.”




Senu now resides at the Rohingya Refugee Camp in Leda, Bangladesh, with her two-year-old son.

Who would’ve thought that such vile act of cruelty would be the fate of a woman who was heavily pregnant – but that is the sad and heartbreaking reality that every Rohingya women face.

Last November, The Express Tribune reported that 20-year-old Habiba and her 18-year-old sister were tied to their beds by the Myanmar soldiers and repeatedly raped them one by one.

“They tied both of us to the bed and raped us one by one,” Habiba said.

“They torched most of the houses, killed numerous people including our father and raped many young girls,” as she recounted how the soldiers ambushed their home and burnt it to the ground.

“One of the soldiers told us before leaving that they will kill us if they see us around the next time they come here. Then they torched our house.”

Fortunately, the two girls and their older brother Hashim Ullah have found shelter with a Rohingya refugee family just a few kilometres away from the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

“We’re almost starving here. But at least no one is coming here to kill or torture,” said Hashim Ullah.


Myanmar Vice President Myint Swe (front, 2nd from L), who chairs an investigation commission looking into violence in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, arrives in Sittwe to join other commission members on a fact-finding mission, Feb. 14, 2017. (Photo: RFA)

February 15, 2017

A national-level commission investigating accusations of abuse of Rohingya Muslims during a security crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has received information contrary to accounts of the violence detailed in a report by the United Nations, a member of the commission said Tuesday.

The 13-member government-appointed commission began its current six-day fact-finding mission to the northern part of Rakhine state on Feb. 10 to look into a reports of security forces killing, raping, and committing other abuses against Rohingya who live in townships now under lockdown.

A 43-page report issued on Feb. 3 by the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that the abuses committed by soldiers and police after coordinated attacks on three border guard posts in early October indicated “the very likely commission of crimes against humanity.”

Saw Thalay Saw, a commission member and lawmaker from Shwegyin in Bago region, said the group has visited 17 villages in Maungdaw township over the past three days.

“We questioned villagers and investigated the differences between the U.N. report and the situation on the ground,” she told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“Most villages that the U.N. report mentioned are Muslim villages,” she said. “Female commission members questioned Muslim women, and we questioned Muslim community leaders.”

The U.N. report said more than 10 women were stripped naked and raped in Laungto village in Maungdaw township, but villagers told the commission during the group’s investigation that no such cases had occurred there and that police only performed body searches of women, Saw Thalay Saw said.

She pointed out that the U.N. report also said that a fisherman found the body of his younger sister, who was raped and killed, in Kyeinchaung village, but when the commission members visited the place and questioned Muslim residents about the incident, they said no such incident had occurred.

“We also met the doctor of a small local hospital and asked him about it, but he said no one was sent to the hospital in that condition,” she said.

“Because our commission was formed by the president, our responsibility is to submit what we found during this trip,” Saw Thalay Saw said.

After Vice President Myint Swe, chief of the commission, arrived in the region on Tuesday, the group inspect the jail in Buithidaung township, one of the areas that has been under lockdown, she said.

He said prisoners at the facility which holds nearly 1,300 inmates, should be allowed to meet with their families, be given regular medical care, and have faster access to the court system for judging their cases, the Myanmar News Agency reported.

No evidence to take action

The commission has been investigating reports of murder, torture, arson, and rape in northern Rakhine state since December and has made two other trips to the areas affected by violence.

In January, the commission issued an interim report, saying it had found no cases of genocide or religious persecution of Rohingya Muslims living in the region in the wake of deadly border guard attacks last October and a subsequent security lockdown.

It also said its interviews of local residents about rape allegations by Rohingya women and girls who fled to Bangladesh had yielded insufficient evidence to take legal action, and that its investigations into accusations of arson, torture, and illegal arrests were ongoing.

Myanmar security forces targeted the Rohingya after it was determined that Rohingya militants were responsible for the attacks on the border guard posts during which nine policemen were killed.

The U.N. has estimated that more than 1,000 Rohingya have been killed during the security operations, and more than 69,000 have fled to neighboring Bangladesh where they are living in refugee camps.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has come under international criticism from rights groups and other Nobel Peace Prize winners for perceived inaction on the plight of the Rohingya.

However, under a constitution written by the long-ruling military regime that ceded power to her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi has no control over the military or security forces accused of the atrocities, and independent media access to the conflict zone in Rakhine has been strictly limited. 

Reported by Wai Mar Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Rohingya refugee Nur Sahara in the arms of a Rohingya man at Lambabil in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar. They had crossed the border into Bangladesh. Sahara was crying in fear as she had seen a photojournalist wearing boots. She had witnessed men in boots torture people in her village across the border. (Photo: The Daily Star)
February 15, 2017

Bangladesh will take up the Rohingya issue with Germany during the prime minister's visit to Munich, aiming to mount pressure on Myanmar to repatriate its nationals from Bangladesh.

"We've already talked to the European Commission on the Rohingya issue. And of course, the issue will be discussed at a meeting with Dr Angela Merkel," Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press conference at the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

A Bangladesh delegation, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaves here on Thursday for Munich, Germany, on a four-day official visit to attend Munich Security Conference (MSC) and the prime minister will hold bilateral talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday next.

Mahmood Ali said the whole world is with Bangladesh over Rohingya issue while the United Nations has already criticised Myanmar in strong words for persecution of Rohingya people.

"We think we're on the right track over Rohingya issue because the world has realised how much sufferings the Rohingya people have been going through," he said.

About relocation of Rohingya people to Thengar Char in Hatiya, the Foreign Minister said Cox's Bazar is the country's main tourism spot and it cannot be allowed to be destroyed. "We have to consider the environment and also the problem of local people."

He said Rohingya people will not be there at Thengar Char forever as they will be repatriated to their homeland.

Mahmood Ali said Rohingya people are not being relocated right now. Infrastructures will be built and livelihood options will be created there before their relocation to Thengar Char, he added.

The government has started the initial process to gradually shift Rogingyas to Thengar Char in Hatiya, Noakhali.


    • Rohingya Exodus